By Idang Alibi
On Sunday, June 19, I left my village, Gakem in northern CRS, where I have been for over two years farming, to return to Abuja via the Ikom-Katsina Ala Highway and the Gboko-Makurdi-Keffi Road. Somewhere between Yandev-Makurdi Road, I encountered a most intimidating Governor Samuel Ortom campaign convoy. I don’t know which dirt poor community it was destinated for that holy Sunday morning. But it was breath- takingly intimidating.
It was an armada of all makes, shapes and sizes of fuel-guzzling jeeps. Some of the jeeps were a crossbreed between armoured tanks and a luxurious four-wheel drive: Mercedes Beast, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Hilux, you name them. They were in that convoy and they looked to me, a poor, careful and frugal Peter Obi follower, like they were up to 1000 or more in number! I have never in my life seen such an array of costly automobiles on any road at any one time like that before. It was as if a demon was invoked summoning all jeeps of the world to appear on that road.
The sight on that road that day and time was reminiscent of Mansa Kankan Musa camel convoy that took him to the Holy Land in Saudi Arabia to which he went on pilgrimage some five centuries ago. For, at every point along that road to Makurdi, some members of the entourage who missed their earlier colleagues were seen tearing down to catch the earlier departees.
It was a most fascinating madness that caused me to say to no one but my humble self that the sight I was seeing was not what leadership is all about. Leadership, I told myself, is not about intimidation. It is not about any spectacle to impress anyone. It is not about showmanship. Nor is it about brow-beating anyone because I learnt that the whole show was put up partly in answer to critics and doubters of Governor Ortom who dismiss him as a governor who does not have people or followers of any number or significance.
Leadership, I continued in my private philosophysing, is about a leader sitting down in a lonely place alone or in company of deep thinkers, and wondering how he can aggregate and allocate the kind of money that was used in purchasing all those jeeps of Benue in producing simple but vital things Benue needs for her development rather than use such money to buy wasting assets. Each of the jeeps I saw that day and many more that were not on the road must have cost nothing less than #100 million a piece. Without exaggeration, I saw a trillion Naira on the road that day! And I can also guess that the fuel used on those fuel-gobbling jeeps on the road that day must have depleted Benue by not less than a #100 millions Naira. How sad. In the eyes of some misgoverned Nigerians like me, that looks a princely sum that can change the story of many citizens if channeled towards alleviating some socio-economic challenges facing them. The show was a shameful, wrongful parade of the miserable Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Benue State.
And my mind went to my man, Peter Obi who his traducers say more in mockery than in celebration of his genius that he will make a better Man of the Exchequer than a president. If he saw what I saw that sad holy day, I am sure he will call Bianca Ojukwu, sit her down to watch a video of the madding crowd of Ortom’s campaign convoy and say to her: ‘’Anyanwu, do you know how many number of Benue children that each of those jeeps can train in primary, secondary and tertiary schools?
Since I lack the power to change anything in this country seemingly cursed with a generation of squander-maniacs in public offices across the land who have grievously despoiled a potentially prosperous nation, I was left with no option than to reflect on the story of Creation: ‘’The earth was without form, and void: and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘’Let there be light’’; and there was light. I, therefore, pray that as the spirit of God hovered over the earth which was void and formless and He made a declaration which brought light and led to form and order, let Peter Obi, by some serious miracle, accede to the presidency and let his spirit of prudence and reasonableness hover menacingly and rebukingly across this wasteful and tear-inducing land and restore some form and order and reasonability to it. Amen.